History Main / DistantFinale

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Amphibia}}'' ends with an epilogue situated 10 years after the final episode, where we are shown what are the main characters doing now,, ending with [[AndTheAdventureContinues Sprig and Ivy traveling to explore a newly discovered continent]]. Meanwhile, back on Earth, [[FastForwardToReunion Anne, Sasha and Marcy, now adults, happily reunite after various years of being separated]].

* The {{OVA}} of ''Anime/ALittleSnowFairySugar'' functions as a Distant Finale of sorts, with the main story sandwiched as a flashback between scenes which take place some 4 years after the end of the TV series, showing a grown-up Saga and Greta, who apparently have become the best of friends.

* ''Series/BabylonFive'': "Sleeping in Light", 19 years later, as well as the season 4 finale "The Deconstruction of Falling Stars", a whole episode of this trope, showing us the impact of the titular space station 100, 500, 1,000, and 1,000,000 years in the future.

* ''ComicBook/BeastWarsUprising:'' The final story, ''The Inexorable March'', borrows from ''Babylon 5'' and first goes from immediately after the previous story to a month ahead, a year, a decade, a century and then a millennia onward - the last one ending with two Cybertronian ships crash landing on an unknown planet, far from home, with the captain vowing to do what he can to get both parties back. "[[WesternAnimation/BeastWars Little did he know.]]"

* The ending to the ''Manga/ShamanKing'' manga, "Funbari No Uta," is one of these. It follows Yoh and Anna's son Hana, his emerging spiritual powers, and how he meets his very own Anna, whom he is destined to be with. We also get to see the main characters and what's become of them now that they're all grown up.

* ''LightNovel/ScrappedPrincess'' ends with a few scenes showing all the characters living HappilyEverAfter.

* The last chapter of ''Manga/InuYasha'' takes place 3 years later, then jumps ahead a bit for the last pages.

* The epilogue of ''Literature/RunWithTheWind'' takes place after a three year time skip. Kakeru and the twins are fourth years and leading the now huge Kansei University Track Team, while the older members are either working or at graduate school. The original team gather together when the Aotake dorm is about to be taken down and they are still shown to be close. It’s also a BittersweetEnding, as Haiji has a slight limp, having permanently damaged his already injured leg in the final race of the series.

* ''LightNovel/{{Gosick}}'' has the finale set 4 years after the main events, when Kazuya returns to Japan after the war, finally reuniting with Victorique who has been staying with his family, waiting for his return. It is also implied that they get married as well.

* ''Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventure'' is weird about this. On the one hand, Part 2 ends with Joseph as an old man about to visit his grandson in Japan.... which is the beginning to Part 3. On the other hand, it also ends with a WhereAreTheyNowEpilogue detailing the lives of Speedwagon, Erina, Lisa Lisa, and Smokey. Considering all the parts take place years after each other (except for part 7, it's complicated), this should be an aversion, but it's the only part to do this.
** ''Manga/StoneOcean'' happens 150 years or possibly ''trillions of years'' depending on how you see the effects of Made in Heaven, after ''Manga/PhantomBlood'', serving as the series ultimate finale. The next part, ''Manga/SteelBallRun'', is as a ContinuityReboot set in a separate universe.

* ''Franchise/{{Naruto}}''

* The final chapter of ''Anime/AttackOnTitan'' mostly takes place three years after the Rumbling was stopped and titan powers ceased to exist. It shows the fates of those remaining, most of whom are working together to convince the 20% of humanity that remains that Eldians are no longer a threat.

* In the final scene of Tim Robbins' ''Film/CradleWillRock'', which is set in TheThirties and is about the corruption of both theater and the art world by money, the cast of a vaudeville show that has had its government funding yanked due to the RedScare form a funeral procession for a discarded ventriloquist dummy and carry the tiny coffin into Times Square, which is shown to be the Times Square of TheNineties.
* ''Film/RaisingArizona'' ends with H.I. dreaming about his distant future and [[spoiler: the children he will eventually have with Ed.]]

* The "Double Secret Probation Edition" of the ''Film/AnimalHouse'' DVD takes the well-known WhereAreTheyNowEpilogue to the movie even further, with a fake documentary, actually titled "Where Are They Now", taking the text blurbs from the movie and running with them. Director John Landis is the documentary maker, who revisits his earlier "documentary", interviewing the characters. Save for Bluto; the hard-partying, mischief-making, unlikely-to-graduate FratBro is now "President Blutarsky". Unfortunately, he could not be interviewed on account of John Belushi being inconveniently dead.

* In ''Film/AIArtificialIntelligence'', David and Teddy remain frozen in the ice for over 2,000 years before they're thawed out by the Future Mechas, when humanity has long since died out.
* In the last scenes of ''Film/{{Atonement}}'' the main character tells what happened to the others, more than sixty years after the story took place. It [[TheEndingChangesEverything changes]] [[TearJerker quite a few things.]]
* The last scene of ''Film/BroadcastNews'' shows the three main characters seven years on.
* ''Film/HeavensGate'' ends with the main character on a boat off the coast of Rhode Island, married to another woman, more than a decade later.
* In the finale/epilogue of ''Film/{{Elf}}'', after an undisclosed period of time, Buddy and Jovie have since married and have a daughter (or son, in the Broadway musical) when they revisit the North Pole/Christmastown.
* An...interesting variation occurs in ''Film/{{Jumanji}}'', wherein [[spoiler: after [[BookEnds time reverses to the beginning of the game in 1969 following the end of it in 1995]],]] the finale occurs 26 years later [[spoiler: in 1995, which was the present for most of the movie.]]
* ''Film/ThirteenGoingOnThirty'', where Jenna appears to wish herself to become a 30-year-old. She wakes up in a nice apartment, discovering that she's incredibly successful but lonely. She meets up with a guy who was her only friend in school and realizes she has feelings for him. They sleep together, but he then shuts her down, explaining that he's about to get married, and a brief rekindling of the flame is not enough to derail a long-term commitment. So... she wishes she was 13 again. She wakes up in the same closet where she locked herself after a failed party, runs out and kisses the boy. Cut to 17 years later when they're moving into their dream house.
* The main action in the {{Biopic}} ''Chaplin'' ends in 1952: Creator/CharlieChaplin, leaving for a film premiere in his native England, learns that he's been effectively exiled from the United States over [[RedScare accusations that he is a Communist]]. In the framing device set in 1963, he admits to a (fictional) biographer that he hasn't considered returning to the U.S., even though he could, as he doesn't feel that Americans care about him anymore. The distant finale takes place at the 1972 Academy Awards ceremony in Hollywood, where -- as he watches an audience enjoy a montage of his work in the leadup to his receiving an Honorary Oscar -- he realizes they still do.
* ''Film/WhereAreMyChildren'' ends with the Waltons in a loveless marriage after Richard Walton finds out that his wife has aborted not one, not two, but three pregnancies. The last seconds of the movie use a dissolve to skip forward a good 25 years or so to show the Waltons old and childless.
* ''Film/SchindlersList'': The final scene takes place about 50 years later, in which the surviving Schindlerjuden, along with their families and descendants, gather at Oskar's grave to thank him for all that he'd done.
* Most of the fantasy-musical drama, ''Film/TheSnakePrince'', takes place in the 16th century, revolving around the ForbiddenLove between the titular prince and the human woman who loves him. They both died at the film's climax, him getting killed by the [[UngratefulBastard ungrateful villagers who fears his powers after he had saved their homes]], and her choosing to throw herself off a cliff so they can be TogetherInDeath. Cut to the final scene, in 1976, where the prince and his lover are depicted as statues overlooking a cliff where they died several centuries ago.
* The ''Franchise/UltraSeries'' movie ''Film/UltramanSaga'' provides this for two Heisei series -- ''Series/UltramanDyna'' and ''Series/UltramanCosmos''. ''Dyna''[='=]s reveals what the rest of Super GUTS has been doing since Asuka's HeroicSacrifice (Captain Hibiki is now head of TPC, Ryo is now the captain of Super GUTS, etc.) and there's one last meeting between Asuka and his old teammates. In ''Cosmos''[='=] case, Musashi is now married to Ayano and lives on the planet Juran, rejuvenated into a kaiju sanctuary after its devastation by Sandros and now protected by Chaos Header ([[HeelFaceTurn who had been redeemed by Cosmos]] in the series' own finale).

* ''Film/TheDish'' takes place during the Apollo 11 mission. The ending shows Cliff looking at the historical radio telescope, now a mere relic, decades later. A guard tells him that it received the signal from the Moon back in 1969. Cliff smiles, tells him he knows, and leaves.
* The original ending and DirectorsCut of ''Film/ArmyOfDarkness'' had Ash drinking a potion to make him sleep for centuries until he wakes up in modern day but drinking a drop too much and waking up a century late in a post apocalyptic future. The ''Series/AshVsEvilDead'' mentioned below does something similar.
* The mid-credits scene of ''Film/DontLookUp'' does this, featuring [[spoiler:the rich elites, having escaped the destruction of Earth in their {{Sleeper Ship}}s and landing on an exoplanet 22 millennia in the future. Not only did half of them die anyway due to some of the stasis pods failing and a few ships failing to make it to the planet's surface, but after President Orlean is eaten by one of the local animals, the rest of the group immediately finds themselves surrounded by a pack of those same carnvious creatures.]]
* The epilogue of ''Film/TheKissingBooth3'' is set six years later, as Elle, Noah, Lee, and Rachel reunite at an alumni gathering at their former high school. Elle and Noah have both become established in their respective dream jobs, while Lee and Rachel are engaged to be married. It's implied that Elle and Noah will rekindle their failed romance.

* Most of the last volume of ''ComicBook/TheSandman'' is this. Interestingly, it plays with the timeline by skipping back to Shakespeare at the end.

* ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsTheCloneWars'': In "Victory and Death", after [[spoiler:Ahsoka and Rex escape their crashing Star Destroyer during Order 66]], the final scene shows [[spoiler:the Empire excavating the wreckage years later, and [[TheCameo Darth Vader]] [[TragicKeepsake picking up the lightsaber Ahsoka left behind]] [[DueToTheDead at a makeshift memorial]]]].

* ''Literature/LegendTrilogy'': [[TrilogyCreep Before it received a fourth installment]], the trilogy ends ten years into the future, as 25-year-old June and Day unexpectedly reunite after having been separated for years.

** The Kids OVA for [[Anime/FullmetalAlchemist the 2003 anime series]] is also this to Ed, living in 2005. Ed is surprisingly still kicking past 100 years old and still with his grandkids. The movie, ''Anime/FullmetalAlchemistTheConquerorOfShamballa,'' takes place a few years after the anime ended.

* Creator/PeterDavid set the final issue of his 12-year-run of ''ComicBook/IncredibleHulk'' 10 years after the previous issue. A Daily Bugle [[FlashBack interview]] with [[UnreliableNarrator Rick Jones]] serves as a fitting end to both David's tenure on the title and the Hulk mythos in general.

* ''Manga/BlueFlag'': The penultimate chapter timeskips 7 years into the future, to showcase what happened to the main characters after high school. [[spoiler:Two years after high school, Taichi and Kuze broke up. Masumi has married a man named Mitsuyuki. Taichi and Touma have married each other. Kuze's wedding to an unnamed man is the even that the final chapter follows.]]

* ''Anime/GunBuster'' ends with two main characters returning to Earth after ending humanity's BugWar, and thanks to TimeDilation the planet has advanced twelve thousands years outside of their perspectives. [[spoiler:Despite fear of the world forgetting about them, they're giving a ([[RandomlyReversedLetters slightly misspelled]] hero's welcome.]] The sequel, ''Anime/DieBuster'', has a much more modest version -- only ten years. [[spoiler:Turns out to be ''the exact same scene'', from another perspective.]]
* The final manga volume of ''Manga/HisAndHerCircumstances'' is set many years after the series to show the cast as happy adults. Though [[spoiler:Arima]] was killed. [[BlatantLies By an assassin's bullet]].
* Both the anime ending and the manga ending of ''Manga/{{Mahoromatic}}'' happen about 20 years after the events of the main story but both offer different perspective endings where in the anime [[spoiler:Suguru moves to the new Saint and human planet and gets cybernetic enhancements and kills combat androids. Either is dying or badly injured and sees Mahoro again and they walk together.]] The manga gets a different ending where [[spoiler:Suguru becomes an officer in Vespar and defeats the last of Management and when he goes back home sees Mahoro again after she was reborn as a baby and grew up with all of her memories intact.]]

* ''VisualNovel/DaCapo Second Season'' ends with [[spoiler:the two obviously destined characters]] getting married, and in the repeated ending animation, 2 adults are shown (faceless) looking through a photo album. The finale's credits finally reveal (as if no one could have guessed) that the two adults are a married [[spoiler:Nemu and Junichi]].

* In ''Anime/KurauPhantomMemory'' we see the lives of the main characters ten years after the events in the previous episode, in which [[spoiler:Kurau loses her Rynax, causing her pair Christmas lots of grief]]. The most important event in the last episode therefore is [[spoiler:the return of the Rynax-Kurau out of Christmas' body, much like Christmas herself did when she appeared out of Kurau years before]].

* ''Anime/TengenToppaGurrenLagann'' has a TimeSkip ''and'' a Distant Finale. The finale shows the characters about 20 years after the events of the show, with Rossiu [[spoiler:becoming the benevolent president over the entire galactic alliance with Leeron as his aide]], Yoko becoming principal of her school, teaching young children, Darry and Gimmy piloting Gurren Lagann, [[spoiler:Viral being the supreme commander over the entire fleet]] and Simon [[spoiler:still living out his life WalkingTheEarth as a hermit, free of all bonds of authority and the responsibilities it involves]].
** In the movie, though it omits the other character's scenes, it expands on Simon's epilogue. [[spoiler: He's going around helping people in need, in exchange for [[FillItWithFlowers planting flowers]], fulfilling Nia's dream.]]
* The anime ending of ''Manga/MagicKnightRayearth'' takes place a year after the girls return from Cephiro. [[spoiler: Hikaru, Umi and Fuu see the once again restored country of Cephiro in the large windows of TokyoTower, from where they were taken to Cephiro both times.]] Considering however that [[spoiler:Hikaru wishes to return to Cephiro once more to discover the new story of the land, it's questionable whether this is really a Distant Finale or a foreshadowing of another trip waiting to happen. After all it was the girls' wish to return to Cephiro the second time that took them back! Dun dun dun!]] The manga's ending takes place ''sometime'' after the adventure, but it's not explicitly stated how long.

* The epilogue scene of ''Anime/{{Zegapain}}'' is set an ambiguous number of years after the final battle, with the lighthouse visited in an earlier episode now ravaged by time and reclaimed by nature. Depending on the viewer's interpretation, it can be a BittersweetEnding [[spoiler:as Kyo started aging once he had been reconstituted as a real human being, but the time needed to restore this technology, and save the rest of mankind, might have surpassed his own lifespan]].

* ''Anime/TurnAGundam'' serves as something of a Distant Finale for the entire ''Gundam'' franchise: it manages to do a surprisingly good job in tying what would otherwise be completely separate [[AlternateUniverse timelines]]. Also referenced in SD Gundam: G Generation Spirits where [[spoiler:an omnicidal autonimous Turn-A Gundam appears to bring about the apocalypse, effectively ending the entire Universal Century and leading to the events of Turn-A the series. Probably not the canon version of events, though.]]
** ''[[Anime/MobileSuitGundam00 Gundam 00]]'' has its own Distant Finale at the end of the movie, showing humanity 50 years after the conclusion of the story. [[spoiler:They're at perfect peace with the ELS and are just about to launch their first interstellar starship, crewed entirely by Innovators and built with ELS components, to meet other sentient species across the stars.]]

* ''Manga/SomedaysDreamersIISora'' skips five years, to show how the students and instructors of the mage institute are doing and how some of them are dealing with [[spoiler:Sora's death]].

* There is one in ''Anime/MichikoAndHatchin'', where Hatchin, grown up with a little kid, [[spoiler:falls into the arms of her beloved Michiko]].

* The final scenes of ''Anime/SoltyRei'' take place several years after the FinalBattle (and attendant HeroicSacrifice) to save the city from Eirene. [[spoiler:Roy finds Solty floating in space, still alive]].

* The ending to the ''Manga/ShamanKing'' manga, "Funbari No Uta," is one of these. [[spoiler: It follows Yoh and Anna's son Hana, his emerging spiritual powers, and how he meets his very own Anna, whom he is destined to be with.]] We also get to see the main characters and what's become of them now that they're all grown up.

* ''Manga/AiYoriAoshi'''s manga epilogue takes place 4 years later, when [[spoiler:Tina finally returns to Japan]].

** The Kids OVA for [[Anime/FullmetalAlchemist the 2003 anime series]] is also this to [[spoiler:Ed, living in 2005.]] Ed is surprisingly still kicking past 100 years old and still with his grandkids. The movie, ''Anime/FullmetalAlchemistTheConquerorOfShamballa,'' takes place a few years after the anime ended.
* In ''Manga/KuroganeCommunication'' there is a scene set several years after the GrandFinale, in which [[spoiler:Haruka and Katano return from Mars to have a joyous reunion with the robots that stayed behind on earth. They also bring their daughter with them]].

** Morishima Haruka's epilogue has [[spoiler:both of them married and living together, with Junichi working as a detective. The setting is a visit from their friend Hibiki.]]
** Ayatsuji Tsukasa's epilogue has [[spoiler:Tsukasa, Junichi and their daughter visiting the Founder's Festival where they both recall the promise they made to each other ten years ago.]]
* The last few minutes of ''Anime/GunXSword'' take place a few years after the final battle. The final scene shows [[spoiler: Van and Wendy]] unexpectedly meeting again after having reluctantly parted from each other. Although the scene is all too brief, the future [[MaybeEverAfter looks promising for them]]. Without that Distant Finale, this would have been a BittersweetEnding.

* At the end of ''Anime/SpeedGrapher'', we see an epilogue set five years later, which shows what several major and minor characters are doing now, [[CleaningUpRomanticLooseEnds tying up some romantic loose ends]] and [[spoiler: reuniting Saiga and Kagura, now that she's no longer a teenager.]]
* ''LightNovel/{{Gosick}}'' has the finale set 4 years after the main events, when [[spoiler:Kazuya returns to Japan after the war, finally reuniting with Victorique who has been staying with his family, waiting for his return]]. It is also implied that [[spoiler:they get married as well]].
* The {{OVA}} of ''Anime/ALittleSnowFairySugar'' functions as a Distant Finale of sorts, with the main story sandwiched as a flashback between scenes which take place some 4 years after the end of the TV series, showing [[spoiler:a grown-up Saga and Greta, who apparently have become the best of friends]].

* The final episode of ''Manga/KidsOnTheSlope'' jumps 8 years into the future, showing [[spoiler: the first meeting of the Kaoru, Sentaro and Ritsuko since the end of high school]]. We're also shown what became of several other members of the cast, such as [[spoiler: Yurika marrying Junichi and Seiji fulfilling his dream of becoming a pop idol]].

** The second half of ''Anime/HeartcatchPrettyCure'''s final episode takes place a few months after the final battle, showing the girls a little while later: [[spoiler: Tsubomi's a proud older sister and is back to wearing her glasses, Itsuki's dumped the male uniform for a standard female one and Yuri's much more happier than before.]] However, the ending is hard to reconcile with the ''Anime/PrettyCureAllStars'' movie series which doesn't show these changes.
** The second half of ''Anime/HugttoPrettyCure'''s final episode takes place in 2030, 11 years after the events of the show. [[spoiler: Saaya becomes a doctor, Homare becomes a famous ice skater, Emiru teams up with Dr. Traum to re-create Ruru in a new child body, and Hana not only becomes the president of a successful company, but also becomes the proud mother of Hagumi, better known as Hugtan.]]
* ''Manga/LoveLucky'': After Fuuta and Kirari no longer had to keep their marriage a secret, [[spoiler:Fuuta became a HouseHusband]]. It then skips one year and we get to see how they were living. [[spoiler:They live at a BigFancyHouse, Kirari's father moved in and demands Fuuta to make his tea]].

** ''Manga/StoneOcean'' happens 150 years [[spoiler:or possibly ''trillions of years'' depending on how you see the effects of Made in Heaven,]] after ''Manga/PhantomBlood'', serving as the series ultimate finale. The next part, ''Manga/SteelBallRun'', is as a ContinuityReboot set in a separate universe.

* The ending of ''[[Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion End of Evangelion]]'' is theorized to happen months, perhaps years after the last scene in My Purest Hear For You (Episode 26'), due to the [[spoiler:rust in Misato's cross, amongst other details, with Asuka and Shinji having spent years in Instrumentality.]] The ending also leaves open the possibility of a happy future for Shinji, Asuka [[spoiler:and everyone else who might or might not return from Instrumentality]], as much of a tragic one.

* ''Manga/VampireKnight'': [[spoiler:The epilogue takes place a thousand years later, with Yuuki [[BabiesEverAfter along with her two daughters (one of them bares a strong resembles to Zero)]] going to the family grave to bring what was left of the Bloody Rose and Yuuki gives her life to Kaname to turn him human.]]

* The final chapter of ''Anime/AttackOnTitan'' mostly takes place three years after [[spoiler:the Rumbling was stopped and titan powers ceased to exist]]. It shows the fates of those remaining, most of whom are [[spoiler:working together to convince the 20% of humanity that remains that Eldians are no longer a threat.]]
** The extended ending pushes this even further: It shows a time passage montage of Mikasa continuing to visit the place where [[spoiler:Eren's head]] is buried until she becomes an old woman and passes away. Meanwhile in the background, as the decades pass, Shiganshina grows into a modern city until it's bombed into rubble during a war, more decades go by and a forest grows over the ruins, and the tree that marked [[spoiler:Eren's head]] grave has grown into a giant tree reminiscent of the tree Ymir fell through and got her Titan powers, and then a young boy (hinted to be Mikasa's descendant) [[HereWeGoAgain walks upon a gaping hole on the tree's trunk]].

* ''Literature/TheBlackObelisk'' essentially ends with Ludwig moving to Berlin shortly after the introduction of the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_Rentenmark Rentenmark]] in 1923, then quickly summarizes how the rest of the cast (Ludwig having moved to New York a few years later) fared during UsefulNotes/WorldWarTwo - i.e., [[KillEmAll about as well as you'd expect]].

-->-- '''Sarah Connor''', ''Film/Terminator2JudgmentDay''[[note]][[CriticalResearchFailure Michael actually turned 39 in 1997.]][[/note]]

-->-- '''Sarah Connor''', ''Film/Terminator2JudgmentDay''